


Trying To Try

by PoisonedMind



Series: yoga verse [2]
Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Strangers, Texting, buffy is the real mvp here, questionable flirting techniques (again)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-01-30
Packaged: 2019-10-19 10:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17599661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonedMind/pseuds/PoisonedMind
Summary: So, Dan got Phil’s number and Phil got Dan’s. This is great - amazing actually - except… Phil has no idea how to proceed from here.Or aTry New Thingstimestamp!





	Trying To Try

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dizzy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dizzy/gifts).



> thank you for donating and bidding on my auction for [@phandomcharityworks](https://phandomcharityworks.tumblr.com)!
> 
> beta'ed by the kind [@insectbah](https://insectbah.tumblr.com)

The first message he receives from Dan is at 2:47 AM, and he should most definitely have been asleep by then, but as it is, he’s wide awake, currently marathoning _Buffy_. Again. He’s resorted to not keep a count of how many times he’s watched the show by now, because thinking about the amount of hours he’s spent staring at Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking vampire ass is surely bordering on embarrassing. And, well, he’s got enough embarrassing things to haunt his thoughts as it is. 

He very much ignores the fact that he’s only half paying attention and is instead glancing at his phone every two minutes to check if he’s got a text. 

It’s not as if Phil’s an expert at the texting game, or flirting game, or any game — except _Mario Kart_ , really — so he has no clue about the proper etiquette for any of this. Who should text first? For how long should he wait? Should he _ring_ Dan? 

Louise had very vehemently forbidden him to do that, though, when he had dared to ask about the rules, and Louise definitely understands more about this game than Phil does, so he’d quickly pushed that thought far away.

Also, he’s really not sure what to even write to Dan. Which leaves him in this anxious limbo of wanting to ignore everything and wanting something to happen, and preferably sooner rather than later, so his hands can stop shaking and his heart can stop leaping up into his throat every time his screen lights up. Hence Buffy and Angel making out on the telly. 

The second his phone pings, Phil falls off the couch and it’s definitely not because the sight of _Dan, iMessage_ glaring into the dark room practically gives him a heart attack. It’s because his couch is worn and slippery and therefore actually a perilous object whenever in Phil’s vicinity. 

It takes him five minutes to get up off the floor and two more before he reaches out and grabs the phone.

**Dan**  
_hey phil it’s me dan_

Phil’s barely read it before a new message comes in.

**Dan**  
_which you obvs know cause i put my name in your phone duh_

A smile spreads across Phil’s face and it feels like all the restless jitteriness just rushes out of him. It may or may not still take him four tries before his fingers hit the letters they’re actually supposed to, though.

**Phil**  
_hey dan_

After hitting send, Phil locks his phone and places it screen down as far away from him as possible on the little couch. He lies down on his back, just staring up at his ceiling, slowly inhaling and then exhaling. He tries to recall what the yoga instructor taught them about breathing exercises, but he can’t for the life of him remember anything other than brown curls, deep dimples, dark eyes, and horrible pain in places he didn’t realise could hurt.

He jerks when a sudden scream from the telly bursts the bubble of silence enfolding the dark room. And perhaps he is slightly too superstitious, he won’t deny that possibility, but he takes it as a sign that Buffy wants him to pull himself together. Afterall, Dan is just another guy and Phil would never ignore a command from Buffy. 

“Okay, Buffy,” he mumbles as he reaches for his phone. “I’m trusting you.”

Buffy is nodding on the television and it’s most likely a coincidence, but Phil’s certain it’s her way of showing her approval. 

There are two texts from Dan.

**Dan**  
_oh god  
i didn’t actually expect you to reply immediately_

Phil’s stomach drops, his heart hammers, and this is exactly why he shouldn’t do this without consulting Louise. He doesn’t understand the rules, he doesn’t even know if there _are_ rules because they seem to change every time he asks and, oh, a third message appears.

**Dan**  
_it’s like the middle of the night why are you awake!?_

He’s just staring at the words. Then he reads their whole conversation. Huh. If he didn’t know any better, it kind of sounds like Dan’s trying to joke with him. And, well, that might actually be a game Phil can play, too.

**Phil**  
_really? coming from you, night owl?_

Dan’s reply is instant and the thought that he might be bent over his phone too, waiting for Phil to write anything, sets butterflies loose in Phil’s stomach.

**Dan**  
_okay touché_

His lips are stretching out into a smile again, of their own accord, but Phil’s alone in his flat at three in the morning and he can’t be bothered to school his features into anything other than the giddiness spilling from the wings of the fluttering butterflies.

**Phil**  
_maybe you’re a bat_

He hits send before his brain catches up to what he just wrote and he almost throws the phone away because now he’s surely weirded Dan out enough to make him stop talking to him. 

He glares at Buffy who simply smiles back. 

“I’m never listening to you again,” he tells her, sternly, like a disappointed parent. Then he immediately feels bad and apologises profusely to the television.

Halfway through vowing to himself to never set a foot inside the fitness centre ever again, another notification pops up on his phone.

**Dan**  
_or maybe i’m a vampire and this is me trying to catfish you so i can suck your delicious blood_

Phil stares open-mouthed at the text, then he laughs out loud and oh _God_ , the image of Dan crowding him, pushing him against a wall, leaning in and touching his lips to Phil’s neck, invades his mind so unexpectedly that Phil can’t shut it out. It’s overtaken his brain and suddenly the temperature in the room rises several degrees. 

The sharp _ping_ from his phone rips him from his thoughts.

**Dan**  
_that is possibly the worst thing i’ve ever said please forget i said that_

In Phil’s mind, vampire Dan’s lips are still tickling along his throat and this is definitely Dan’s fault; he can’t just say something like that. And Phil is certainly not going to let him off the hook that easily.

**Phil**  
_never_

He bites his lip and immediately releases it when he realises what he’s doing. He’s met Dan once; he’s practically a stranger. Why has he managed to snake his way under Phil’s skin this easily? And more importantly, how did he manage it?

**Dan**  
_3 am makes my brain weird i promise i’m not trying to suck your blood_

Yeah, vampire Dan is definitely becoming a permanent resident in Phil’s thoughts and Phil can do absolutely nothing to stop him.

**Phil**  
_but you are trying to catfish me then?_

The butterflies grow wild in his stomach when the three little dots appear from Dan’s side. Did he overstep some boundaries with that joke he did, didn’t he, you don’t joke like that with strangers—

His phone lights up and Phil practically throws himself on top of it. He scrambles around, trying to find it under his chest and somehow ends up on the floor, again, and why is he literally the clumsiest person alive?

**Dan**  
_maybe  
is my vampire talk working? ;)_

And perhaps it’s a good thing he’s sitting on the floor because his body just kind of melts away all of a sudden. If it wasn’t for the rug, Phil is pretty sure he’d be dripping through the floorboards right about now. 

**Phil**  
_guess we’ll have to wait and see_

Again, the reply is instantaneous, and he’s starting to wonder if it’s possible to die from the ferocious fluttering of the butterflies in his stomach. Surely it can’t be healthy.

He opens the text.

**Dan**  
_do you have a vampire kink phil_

Heat blooms across his cheeks and once again he finds himself eternally grateful that he’s sat in the dark of his living room. 

**Phil**  
_no!!!_

**Dan**  
_are you sure about that_

**Phil**  
_i do not have a vampire kink!!_

**Dan**  
_whatever you say philly_

Phil blinks. Stares.

Philly. 

Louise calls him that sometimes, when she’s being Louise and overdramatic, but somehow reading it in a text from Dan makes his brain jump to imagining how the nickname would sound coming from Dan’s lips instead and yeah, he’d very much like to experience that.

Smiling, Phil looks up and Buffy is once again slaying, confident and strong as she is, and maybe Phil should try to borrow some of that courage to ask the question both of them, well, he hopes both of them, are circling around. 

He stares at her, trying to absorb it through the glowing screen of the telly and perhaps it works because a sudden surge of resolution manifests inside him. He bites his lip a little too hard as he concentrates on hitting the letters with his trembling fingers.

**Phil**  
_do you like coffee?_

There. It’s sent off to the cloud or wherever texts go and he can’t take it back now. 

**Dan**  
_i do like coffee yes why_

Now or never. He glances at the telly again because what would Buffy do?

He rolls his eyes; she would seize the moment, of course. That’s what she does. 

“Okay, okay, Buffy.” Phil nods. “I’ll do it.”

**Phil**  
_would you perhaps want to go have a coffee with me sometime before yoga next week?_

It feels like forever comes and goes before the three dots dance on his screen and it feels like even longer before they disappear and a reply pops up.

Phil’s heart squeals when it happens, he’s sure he actually hears it, and then it’s trying to fight its way out through his chest to read Dan’s answer itself. 

**Dan**  
_yeah i’d love to :)_

Those four words somehow manage to fry whatever was left of his brain and he collapses backwards onto the floor, very gracefully of course, ending up lying halfway under the coffee table and oh fuck, coffee, Dan’s going to get coffee. With Phil. They’re getting coffee. Together. 

And it all seems kind of surreal. Him, lying on the floor in his dark flat only lit up by the flickering blue glow from his television in the middle of the night, talking to a guy, to _Dan_ , about getting coffee together. That stuff doesn’t happen to him; he never does stuff like this, but he also knows that by some miracle or maybe a gift from the universe it _has_ just happened to him. And he’s not going to let Dan pass him by without at least trying to get him first. 

**Dan**  
_but don’t be disappointed when you realise i’m not actually a vampire_

Phil has a sneaking suspicion that his cheeks will be sore tomorrow from how wide he’s smiling right now.

**Phil**  
_shut up  
are you sure it isn’t you who has a vampire kink?_

**Dan**  
_maybe i do  
but you’re trying a little too hard to deny this philly and you never answered my question so what dubious activities are you indulging in this late at night if not vampire kink related_

He half snorts, half laughs, consequently almost dropping the phone on his face, and wouldn’t that just be perfect. Showing up to a coffee date with no front teeth because he knocked them out with his phone. Great.

**Phil**  
_that was a very extra way to ask me what i’m doing_

**Dan**  
_extra is my middle name_

**Phil**  
_i actually don’t find that hard to believe_

**Dan**  
_answer the question or i will wear a pair of fake fangs for the coffee_

Phil laughs again, loudly, and maybe he should be concerned about making too much noise in the middle of the night, but then vampire Dan sneaks his cursed way into his mind again and all hope for coherent thought dissipates.

**Phil**  
_if you must know, i might be watching tv_

**Dan**  
_what are you watching_

**Phil**  
_buffy  
don’t judge me_

**Dan**  
_phil!! you literally_  
_i_  
_you’re watching a show about vampires are you sure there’s no vamp kink???_

And Phil is amazed by Dan’s ability to make him laugh, to say something stupid and somehow fill his chest with bubbling champagne which the butterflies in his stomach get drunk on and maybe, just maybe, Phil’s kind of drunk on it too. 

**Phil**  
_i hate you_

He looks up and through the table legs he sees Buffy smiling on the television, happy and giddy, just like he feels.

“Don’t worry, Buffy. I’m really gonna try this time,” he promises.

**Author's Note:**

> i hope you liked it.
> 
> if you want to, you can [like/reblog](https://bie-lovers.tumblr.com/post/182424072321/trying-to-try) on tumblr; it would really make a girl happy :)


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